Castling
by JoeBoBean
Summary: Snow has finally won Eric over, but as the Queen of the Kingdom she really can't just drag a common man in to her house without setting fire to everything she has worked for. It doesn't help that Eric wants to remain outside of the palace anyway. How is she supposed to rule a Kingdom and still keep her love for Eric alive? Sequel to Check Mate.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: Hi all, Since I published Check Mate I have had a little itch to write another story. So after a while I gave in to the itch. This story will take a while to write I know that since I have only written one and a half chapters, but if you bare with me I hope I won't disappoint you all._

_As you maybe able to tell by the title this is a sequel to Check Mate. I'm keeping up with the chess theme. Check Mate is the final move that makes the king surrender, which is what happened at the end of the previous story as Eric final gave in. Castling is another chess move where the King moves to a safer position on the board. It has to take him out of check, but for the purpose of this story its just that Eric will in the end feel safe in his relationship with Snow. Or at least I hope._

_Please enjoy, I love you guys xxx_

* * *

Snow was bored; this session of parliament was taking far too long.

When she had originally set up parliament three years ago; which had been two years after the struggle with the outlying territories it had seemed like a good idea. Snow had decided that she was not going to be a tyrant like her stepmother; she wanted the people to be involved in the decision making. She had just been too naive at the time to understand what difficulties would come from the idea. As the proverb said _the path to hell is paved with the best intentions._

For this parliament she had each head of the re-established noble houses mixed in with all the outlying village elders and shamans all under one roof. The nobles had no idea about the economics of small villages and the elders did not understand the duties the nobles performed on a daily basis that usually had an impact on the reforms they wanted to make. The room was a powder keg and one small spark would ignite the situation and ruin all the effort she had put in over the five years that she had been on the throne. The peace and stability she had finally won after a hard struggle was fragile and she knew it, but for once she hoped that her battle had not been in vain.

"I can't ask my people to pay a tax that will not benefit them!" Saalik shouted slamming his fist on the mahogany bench, "Once again it would appear that the Duke wants money for which to go to war with!" He snapped again glaring at Duke Hammond across the room, if looks could inflict damage she was sure that the Duke would have been flayed by the sheer hatred that burned in Saalik's eyes. The Duke cleared his throat in response and puffed out his chest in a way that Snow had come to loath. He maybe her advisor, but sometimes his arrogance was unfounded; it was him after all who had spent his time watching the world burn while she had been locked away.

"We need a means of being able to defend ourselves from any threat; if the need should ever arise. If we wait it will only make it worse when the time comes and at that time it will be all too late. Then you will crawl to us on your knees as the outlanders will need protecting and you will have no army with which to fight!" When the Duke had finished they both looked towards her expectantly. It was the part she hated most about her position; even more so when both parties had very valid points.

Saalik was the village elder from the northern hills a people of strong will and strict morals. His people were farmers and pacifists to boot. He had made it clear to her that if war ever broke out he and his people would not be involved in battle. They would not lend their men to be slaughtered for something that normally caused more harm than good and she believed him. She also respected him deeply for his beliefs and wished that she herself could be as steadfast as Saalik.

She took a deep breath before she gave her ruling hoping it would be the last of the day,

"I understand the need for the tax, should the worst come to worst," The Duke grinned thinking he had won, "but the last thing I want is for us to be at war with each other. I have worked hard with the elders and shamans to come to terms with all the horror that befell them before my reign. I will not ask them to pay for a war that they want no part in." Saalik bowed to her and she smiled, he may be hot headed, but he knew when to quit. "I am not asking for others to pay the tax either. We have enough money to fund four wars. Four wars that I do not want my people to fight. If we prepare for war it means we do not think it can be avoided. It means we have no faith in the people outside the kingdom. I will not accept that!" At this all the elders and shamans stood and bowed to her before showing her their own separate signs of respect. The nobles nodded amongst themselves and her advisor looked as proud of her as he did mad. It wasn't often that she fought him on policy, but the days she did she knew made him more proud of her than the days where she said nothing at all.

"With that said gentlemen I think we have coved all that we had planned for today, so I call this session of Parliament to order, until next week then." She stood and bowed to the crowd and left the room.

After she had closed the door on the council meeting she leant against the wall to catch her breath and clear her head. As she pushed herself off the wall she saw her friends and before she knew it she was smiling.

"So how was it?" Rose asked as she walked towards her friends across the courtyard, "Saalik cause a fuss again?" At that Snow smiled wider, Rose thought that her infatuation with the man was a secret; little did she know that it was the worst kept secret in the whole Palace.

"Of course he did." Snow replied still smiling, "But he was well within his rights to do so." Rose sighed which only made Greta and Anna roll their eyes at her.

"Have you ever spoken to the man?" Anna asked as she gently rubbed her swollen stomach.

In that moment Snow stopped listening to their conversation about Saalik and watched her friend. Anna was positively glowing from the life growing inside her. Out of all of them she had been sure Anna would not be the first to marry. She thought that the widow had seen enough of love and heart ache to last her several lifetimes, but she had been lucky to be afforded a second chance at love when Snow had brought Benedict back with her as a liaison to the outlands in the south.

He was the son of the town's mayor and he had fallen in love with Anna at first sight. She had often told Snow in the months they had been together that he didn't see the scar that marred her beautiful face and never had. To him she had always been beautiful. Not only that he had become a brilliant father as well even though Snow knew he had been terrified of the thought at the beginning. Anna had passed on her role as the elder of the marshlands and lived in the Palace with Benedict and her daughter; soon enough there would be another sharing their rooms. Not that it mattered as Snow had more than enough room to spare.

After Anna; Greta had surprised everyone when she admitted that she was in love with one of the stable hands, but it seemed like the pair were happy and it always made Snow ecstatic to see them in the cold stone corridors holding hands or chastely kissing one another when they thought no one could see them.

"How can you know he is the perfect man for you if you have never spoken a word to him?!" Anna asked Rose incredulously,

"Because I can feel it!" She replied with all the conviction she could muster,

"What rubbish is Rose talking about this time?" William asked from behind Snow and Rose fell silent. This was the second secret that was well known at court, Rose did not like William and try as he might he still hadn't won her over. It may have had something to do with the fact that most of the time he was insulting her. If he were trying to be mean to the girl he likes Snow wished he would learn that it didn't work.

"I don't think it is any of your business." She said haughtily as she crossed her arms across her body. William looked a little hurt at the comment, but didn't say anything.

"You're Highness," William said after a pause and Snow turned to him smiling softly,

"Yes?" She asked not entirely sure what he wanted,

"Will you be going for a ride today?" He asked with a furrowed brow. At the thought of a ride her heart leapt in her chest,

"I was thinking about it possibly after lunch," She said refraining from running her hand over the cord at her neck. "Why?" she asked as William's brow furrowed all the more.

"Well it would appear that you have a visitor, David showed them to your chambers; not that I thought it were proper." Snow almost punched him in the arm for his final comment, but as her palms had been clammy she thought it was better that she keep them clasped behind her back as and instead she just nodded to him.

Greta, Anna and Rose all began grinning like Cheshire cats and when Anna waved her away she smiled at her friends and then nodded at William again before she left the courtyard as quickly as she could without attracting attention to herself.

She made it to her chambers without incident and fell through the door in her haste; from the direction of the morning room she heard a dark chuckle that warmed her from the tips of her toes to the roots of her hair.

"It would appear that you are in a rush to get somewhere," he said with what she could only assume was a smirk, "Please don't let me keep you from it." Snow looked up as she smoothed down her skirt and smiled at the sight before her. Eric was sat at the table in the morning room with his feet on the table top and a book in his hand. She thought he must have been trying to cover up whatever it was that he had been doing before she fell through the door, but it didn't really work as he was holding the book upside down. She cleared her throat as she tiptoed across the expanse between them to sit opposite him at the tiny ironwood table.

"I was told I had a visitor, whom David had surreptitiously whisked away to my chambers against William's disapproving looks. I thought it was the handsome gold merchant and decided that haste was the best part of valour." Snow said resting her head on her upturned hands,

"I'm not sure you have that sentiment right..." Eric said a frown creasing his brow, "Also sorry to disappoint," he finished putting the book on the table,

"You could never disappoint me." Snow said before she could stop herself and Eric smiled at her across the glossy black wood as her cheeks turned a fiery shade of red.

"Is that so?" he mused as he leant over the wood to capture her face in his hands before he kissed her slowly and sweetly; stealing her breath. When he broke the kiss she bit her lip softly in a gesture that Eric knew meant she was embarrassed as she nodded.

Her eyes sparkled and he took in every inch of her; it seemed like months since they had last seen each other, when in reality it had only been about a week. He knew that when he got himself in to this situation that it was not going to be easy, but he didn't expect his heart to hurt so much at her absence. He had lasted as long as he could before he left his farmhouse and made his way to the Palace and made his way to her world. As his eyes reached her neck he saw the leather cord that rested there and felt the blood in his veins heat up as his pulse began to rise.

"You still wear it?" he asked leaning over the table once again to rest his and on the cord at her collar bone. Snow glanced down and smiled as she took the charm out from the front of her bodice where it lay hidden from prying eyes.

"Of course I do," she said running her hands over the smooth warm wood and stone, "It rests over my heart always," Eric looked at her in what she thought was disbelief as she handed the end of the cord to him. As she placed it in his palm he felt the warmth of her skin imbedded in the wood and her scent of Lilacs and summer rain drifting on the slight breeze in her chambers. He ran his thumb over his work and felt the beauty of the piece he thought she would have hidden in a box.

She touched his hand lightly making him look in to her bottomless brown eyes,

"This way I have a part of you with me, to guide me and comfort me." Eric had never heard more precious words fall from her lips. He took her hand in his and raised her palm to his lips, kissing the centre of her hand with the tenderest of caresses. Every time he saw her it felt like he fell in love with her for the first time; no matter what happened she could always surprise him and as he looked down at the pendant that was made of a rose quartz heart surrounded by a tangle of roses that held the heart in place like a frame and he once again felt blessed that she had chosen him.

* * *

_AN: As before the naming of new characters is important and Saalik is no different his name means follower of a spiritual path and as an elder of his people he inspires them to be better and he wants to do the same for the members of parliament, even when his efforts seem to be in vain._


	2. Chapter 2

_AN: So chapter one was very Eric-less. I'm sorry about that. This chapter however is chock full of Eric. I apologise in advance at what happens to the pair of them. I was listening to Michael Ball when I was writing to the last section and "Who Needs to Know" clearly brings out the worst in me._

_I'm sorry that it's taken me a while to update, but life has really gotten in the way. I'll try to update quicker this time. Well I hope to anyway._

_xxx_

* * *

He had made her the necklace not long after the afternoon where Snow had come to find him at his cottage in the pouring rain. He had based the piece on an old folk song that he had heard in one of the taverns he used to frequent in his days of brawling and drinking and it went along the lines of;

_Here is my heart for you to hold,_

_Within a ring of thorns,_

_Protect it sweet from those you meet,_

_That want to do it harm._

_For you I pray that it will stay,_

_Forever in your arms, _

_To grow, to bloom, to thrive._

To this day it surprised him that something he had heard in those grog soaked days had stuck and when Eric had found the rose quartz he knew exactly what he wanted to make for Snow. He knew with a nagging certainty that he could never give her a ring; as that was an object that would draw too much attention, but a necklace pendant she could hide. This is what he had imagined she would do; what he hoped she would do if he asked her. He had never thought though that she would actually wear it around her neck always.

As he ran his fingertips over the quartz he remembered when he had given her the necklace, it had been a sunny day in spring and he and Adahy had just come back from the market after he had sold some more of his wares. He had ridden up to his cottage to once again see Snow on his stoop huddled in on herself against the sea breeze. She had looked tired and a little sad which had pierced him so soundly that he had nearly fallen off Adahy in his rush to get to her side; it was a moment where he had never hated stirrups more.

"Snow what are you doing here?" he'd asked as he knelt before her, she's looked up in to his eyes and smiled, but it didn't warm him the way it normally did, it didn't even reach her eyes.

"I missed you," She said simply with a gentle shrug of her shoulders. She was so casual that it put Eric on guard,

"You aren't shirking your Royal duties to be here are you?" He asked with what he hoped was mild interest and not full blown concern. Snow's face immediately soured and stood up tipping Eric off balance and he fell splayed on his back in front of his own door.

"I had free time!" She said with almost childlike indignance as she rested her hands on her hips. "I made our last meeting of the council as long as possible so as to not have to reconvene this week. I then sat for several hours with my new subjects listening to all their ailments. I made sure that I would have a free day to meet you." She finished and sucked in a breath before continuing, "So imagine my surprise when I ride out this morning to find that you aren't here and I have no way to get in to your cottage?!" Eric couldn't tell if she were mad at him for not being present or the fact that she was locked out of his rambshackle cottage. He pushed himself off the floor in one fluid motion and with a lopsided grin on his face he captured Snow's between his callused hands,

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to... receive you." He said with a smirk in his voice that made Snow's heart race, "But a lowly Hunstman must eat and deer can only go so far," Snow looked in to his eyes with such a piercing look that it stole his breath,

"I keep telling you that you could become the official Royal Hunstman yet at each turn you refuse me." Eric sighed at the ongoing argument that they were having,

"You know I couldn't accept that," He murmured tracing her cheek with his thumb.

"I'm not asking for you to move to the palace, but then at least we could see each other more."

"People would question it," he said for what seemed the millionth time,

"Do you not think that I do not know that?!" Snow argued her eyes becoming damp with tears, "Do you think I care what people think?!" She placed her hands over his to still them in their movements. Eric looked away from her hypnotic eyes and shook his head slowly,

"You should." He said finally his jaw set with grim determination, "You really should care what people think," he repeated before he brought her lips to his and kissed her soundly with only his horse as a witness.

When they broke apart he slid his hand in to his pocket with a mysterious smile on his face,

"I didn't only go to sell my newest pieces, I had to collect something from the blacksmith." He said softly, "Close your eyes," Snow did as she was asked and Eric took her right hand in his before he placed something heavy and warm in her hand, he wrapped her fingers around it before he whispered, "Open your eyes." Once again she did as she was bidden and in the centre of her palm there was a wrought iron key. "If you insist on making these trips, you should at least have a way of getting inside my cottage." Snow looked at him with shock plain in her features for a few seconds before she jumped in to his arms and wound her arms around his neck. "It wouldn't be good of me to let the Queen sit out and get a chill. I was going to give this the next time we met, but as always you catch me by surprise and my plans crumble at your feet." Snow felt the blush cover her cheeks at his hushed words. "But this is not the only gift I have for you," he finished placing her back on the ground with a wolfish grin that spread heat all over Snow. He took her hand in his and used the new key to open the door.

Once they were over the threshold Eric closed the door and led Snow across the room to the Ottoman he had built was against the furthest wall. He sat to one side and pulled her down next to him all the while she eyed him expectantly.

"What about Adahy?" She asked after a second and Eric shrugged,

"He'll wander in to the barn, I'll see to him later." Snow nodded feeling a little nervous as Eric leant over the Ottoman to retrieve something from the chest he had on the floor. "I've been making this for you for a while now, each time I thought it was finished I decided to start all over again." He fumbled with a cord on a leather purse for a second before he handed it over to Snow, "but I realised that everything is always changing and that I should use this as a representation of a certain moment or feeling." Snow was confused, but knew better that to question Eric when he was in the middle of opening his heart to her. "I hope you will wear this always and know that you are loved even if it is beyond sense and reason." He finished as the necklace fell in to Snow's palm. She looked down at the leather cord and the pendant it held and felt her heart skip a beat.

"Eric it's beautiful," she mumbled as she held it in front of her eyes. He took the cord in his hands and lengthened it to put it over her head all the while she stared at the intricate detail of the piece. After she had finished staring at the quartz she leant forward and rested her head on his shoulder as he enveloped her in his warmth.

"When do you have to go back to the palace?" he asked carding his hand through her long ebony hair,

"Soon," she admitted with a sigh, "But I do not want to think about it, I am here with you and that is all that matters." She kissed his cheek softly and crawled in to his lap, "I am going to make the most of the time we have."

* * *

"What are you thinking about?" Snow asked and Eric was brought back to the present with a slap.

"The day I gave you this," he said softly letting the pendant drop from his hands, "I never thought you would always wear it. I hoped you would, but I didn't quite believe it."

"Ye of little faith," Snow said with a smile as she took his hands in hers and smiled up at him, "There is no one else." She murmured with such sincerity that Eric was taken aback. "I'm sorry that we haven't been able to see one another recently, but..."

"Duke Hammond is causing more trouble than usual?" Eric asked with a smile as he sat down again opposite Snow. She nodded and chewed at the side of her thumb as if deep in thought,

"He wanted a new tax, which of course Saalik and the other members refused. Why can it never be easy?" she asked with a sigh as she leant back in her chair,

"Nothing that you ever want is easy," Eric said with a smile, "And my Queen it shouldn't be, in my experience if something is easy then it is too good to be true." Snow took his hand again and entwined their fingers across the table feeling his warmth seep in to her skin. She looked up at Eric her eyes hooded and dark,

"Will you stay tonight?" she asked simply, but they both knew the answer was as far from simple as they could get. "Please?" she begged and Eric felt his will crumble.

"Whatever my Queen commands," he whispered with humour colouring his words.

"It was not a command," Snow chided, "it was a request." Eric laughed and as always it was a deep throaty sound that took the chill out of Snow's bones,

"Whatever my Queen requests she will most likely not be denied." He replied standing and pulling her with him, "You should know by now Snow I can deny you almost nothing," When she turned and smiled at him it made his blood boil in his veins. Without thinking he pulled her into his chest crushing her in his arms. He heard her laugh breathlessly at being caught off guard and felt her soft little hands push off the pads of muscle on his torso so she could breathe. When his eyes found hers he saw the delight dancing behind them and then felt Snow raise herself on tiptoe so she could brush his lips with her own. The contact was brief and chaste, but it was enough to make Eric's iron will snap. He bundled Snow up in his arms and held her close all the while muttering sweet nothings against her lips, until his tongue tripped over the one secret that he had always wanted to keep buried.

"One day I will be the man to stand next to you while you take your rightful place on the throne. First I have to clean my soul from the stench of blood and bone." Snow gasped at the revelation she was hearing and captured his face between her hands caressing his cheeks with the most infinite care finding in his eyes the ghosts of the past that never seemed to let go of Eric no matter how hard Snow tried.

"You have the purest soul of all the men I know," she whispered placing soft kisses on his cheeks and forehead still trapped in his embrace. She tried to make him look at her, but his eyes kept wandering away from her soft gaze. "You Huntsman are worth any ten men that are at my back." He laughed then, but it was hollow and Snow felt that she had lost him. It was at moments like these that she wished she had met Sara, because she had made Eric forget. No matter how Snow tried he was prone to dark moments of contemplation. She had noticed that recently he had schooled himself to not show this weakness in front of her, but sometimes when his passion overrode his senses his lock on the secrets he kept from her was pried open and she saw the wounded man and the lost child that he kept inside. She pushed off from his shoulders so that he would have no choice to put her feet back on the floor as the last thing he wanted to see was Snow hurt. He did as she suspected and she left his embrace to hunt for something she had commissioned; that she hoped would bring Eric back to her from the veil of ill will he was now shrouded in.

Snow knew she had put it in a place that no one would stumble on it accidentally, but that also meant that now she could no longer find the item.

Her mad dash around her rooms however seemed to snap Eric out the dark place he had stumbled into and he chuckled with genuine delight as he watched Snow.

"What have you lost your Highness?" he asked with soft mocking. Snow turned from a box of trinkets and smiled,

"I'll know it when I find it," she replied and carried on in her search. Eric stood watching her as she flitted around her rooms with what seemed to him an entire lack of sense. As he was getting dizzy watching Snow run to and fro and he knew he could not help Eric sat on her bed and took off his boots all the while intently watching the woman years his junior try to find something that appeared to mean a lot to her.

He knew when she found it because she made an unrestrained sound of excitement in the back of her throat. Eric had been expecting the item to be small since she had looked in all her chests and trinket boxes, including the one for the chess set he had made her all those years before. He was mistaken though; the item in her hands was rather larger than a small trinket.

Snow looked up at him from where she stood across the room and smiled a soft knowing smile that he could do nothing, but respond to it in kind.

"I've been thinking of a way for you to always have something of me when I'm not with you..." she said sounding unsure of herself for a second, "You aren't a man for jewellery or trinkets that have no use; so I had to think of something that I could have made that you could use. I'm not saying this right," she finished sounding defeated. "This was supposed to be for another occasion, but having you here I can't think of a better one." With that Snow made her way to her bed and sat opposite Eric still holding the item to her chest as if she was in an internal war with herself about giving him the item. Eventually she took his hands in hers and placed the item in them. Eric felt the weight in his hands and knew what Snow had made for him and it made him smile. He unwrapped the oilskin and inside was a blade with a deer antler hilt.

"It has good weight," he commented as he turned the blade over in his hand.

"So I was told," Snow replied with a gentle shrug of her shoulders, "I may have been taught how to hold and wield a sword, but I still don't fully understand what is meant by the weight of the items, they all seem unnecessarily heavy to me." Eric barked a laugh and took her hand in his placing the hilt in her hand,

"All swords and knives need good weight and balance my Lady to make them fit for their purpose," Eric said tracing his fingers over the back of her hand as he wrapped her fingers around the smooth hilt. "The weight of the hilt should be equal to that of the blade to have control. If the blade is too heavy you over compensate and move too slow, too light and you never really know what you need to do." Snow looked up in to his eyes and saw in them the burning passion that had been missing mere minutes before. She dropped the hunting knife and captured his face in her hands, kissing him with as much fire as she could muster not that it was hard. Eric replied in kind lifting the hunting knife off the bed and placing it on the floor next to his boots.

The light from the fire glinted off the knife's design showing it in sharp relief; along the blade was a single rose in full bloom and along the hilt there was an old oak tree rising from the pommel to the bolster, but unlike the oak tree that made up Snow's family crest; this oak tree was also in full bloom. Not that Eric would notice this until much later,

"Thank you," he mumbled against Snow's lips as he pinned her down into her mattress watching her pupils expand to swallow up the dark brown of her eyes as she exhaled softly,

"You don't need to thank me," she replied with a smile and fisted her hands in his hair bringing his face the last few inches to hers. "Just promise me that tonight you'll stay,"

"On my life's blood my Highness, tonight I will stay." He told her his voice a low growl as he brought their lips together again.


End file.
